Where to begin? This film seems more like a parody-comedy at times and yet from those very same scenes one could feel that Netflix has allowed the village idiot 20 minutes to ramble to camera.

Some of the main people we meet in the documentary are Mark Sargent, simply describable as a crazed egomaniac and is barely in a scene wearing a shirt without his name displayed on it. He opens the movie with his quite frankly weak and fundamentally flawed explanation of the Flat Earth Theory in which he points out that he can see the tops of Seattle’s skyscrapers on the horizon approximately 5 miles away from where he and the camera are. Nathan Thompson, a man that is bouncing a ping pong ball off of two mallets in his front garden whilst intensely firing off American states in alphabetical order. He later goes on to claim that human sacrifices are still being carried out. Matthew Boylan A.K.A. Math Powerland a man that says he was a former NASA employee, yet was merely a contractor hired to assist because of his art background. He refused to appear in this film because of his ludicrous demands. Patricia Steere, a Flat Earther, YouTube video blogger and self confessed conspiracy theorist who owns the obligatory reading of 9/11 and UFO conspiracies as well as “One hundred proofs that Earth is not a globe”, a book published in 1885. Bob Knodel, a leading spokesperson of a similar Flat Earth organisation. In one scene further into the film following his introduction he goes on to tell of his and others’ scepticism of the rotation of the Earth (15 degrees per hour). He explains that modern ring laser gyroscopic technology has the capability to prove/disprove (depending on your view) the Earth’s rotation. Knodel explains that the gyro costs $20,000 dollars and briefly I was disheartened as his tone implied that they had not completed the experiment, however he then says how a community member purchased the equipment and lo and behold it proved that the Earth did indeed rotate at 15 degrees per hour. Following this admission he says, and I quote, “that was a problem. Of course we weren’t willing to accept that and started looking for ways to disprove it was the movement of the Earth.”

You also hear from real, actual physicists and one of the important points that the physicists in the documentary made was that, it’s easy to just dismiss the flat earth movement as silly nonsense. The problem is, though, that once people start adjusting their reality to fit a nonsensical theory, then it affects other parts of their reality, as well, and also affects the people around them whom they affect with the theory.

So this is a fascinating study, not just on the flat-earth movement, but on fringe movements in general, and how they affect us all. And the more the anti-science fringe theories spread, the more they affect us, especially when people who believe them go into government, etc.

Behind the Curve is not about whether or not the Earth is flat but instead is about the people who believe that it is. Or at least I think it is, you see this documentary is badly edited and felt very disjointed. At times I really didn’t know which side of the argument people were on. Or even where things were taking place.

Have you seen this film? Let us know your opinions in the comments below and of course if there are any films on Netflix UK you want us to review let us know!